Sony Requires PlayStation 4 Developers to Include Vita Remote Play

Sony has confirmed earlier reports that PlayStation 4 developers would have to include remote play functionality in all PlayStation 4 games. Sony gave the following statement:

“Yes, it’s true unless the game requires specific hardware like the camera. It will be great to play PS4 games on PS Vita.” President of Sony Computer Entertainment, Shuhei Yoshida said via twitter.

The news originally broke when a trusted source inside Sony for Eurogamer, told Digital Foundry that Sony mandated Vita Remote Play for all upcoming PlayStation 4 games. Except those that would require that use of the bundled stereoscopic camera the PlayStation 4 Eye.

This news from Sony is a shot in the arm for the PlayStation Vita which has been struggling to move units and have commercial success. Sony hopes that Vita remote play will help give the hand held some of the same functionality as the Wii U GamePad.

This is how the feature would work; the Remote Play will downscale the 1080p frame buffer to the Vita’s natural 960×544 resolution; using the PlayStations 4 internal hardware. This is then streamed over WiFi to the Vita; where it will then be decoded by the hand-held then the Vita sends back the control input from the player to the PlayStation 4. In the simplest terms think of this as OnLive cloud streaming technology for the home.

The Remote Play feature is nothing new, the Vita and PSP both had this feature with the PlayStation 3 though it was rather lackluster. What will be interesting is to see is how the developers use this feature in future titles on the PlayStation 4.

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